Today's lunch featured a couple of new things. The main dish, directly translated (according to my vice principal), was meat and potatoes. The sides were salad and some tamago-yaki (rolled omelette). As seems the trend these days, I also had a little bonus that I, also trendy-like, forgot to photograph again.

The meat and potatoes sounds like it should be steak and potatoes, but it was actually chicken with, yes, potatoes, but also carrots and beans and onions and other things. It was in a light broth that I didn't drink. The salad was pickles with spinach, cabbage, carrots, etc. It was dressed in the usual house, except with sesame seeds and a new ingredient, perilla, added. Perilla (called shiso in Japan) is vaguely mint-like in the flaky form we had it as today, but I've had it before as a wrapper for sashimi. The egg, as usual, was delicious.

I actually went for extra salad, and hardly touched the rice as a result. I doubt it's the wonders of shisho that did it, I just really enjoy our salads. Also, back to the usual green tea today.

As for the bonus I mentioned, a principal of a nearby school sent over some manju, or sweet buns, for us to enjoy in the staff room. This kind of bun has a soft rice dough layer on the outside, and red bean paste on the inside (other flavors are possible, but red bean paste is the most common). This one in particular had a few actual beans rolled into the dough, too. I like this kind of sweet, so it was a welcome dessert.

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